Burning Eye, 2019
In the poem ‘That Pebbledash Finish’ from his debut
pamphlet The Best of a Bad Situation (Silhouette Press), Jamie Thrasivoulou refers to the authors
‘Leonard, Welsh, Kelman and Harrison’. Reading his collection Our Man, I
was reminded of Mike Skinner, a.k.a The Streets – both have an unrelenting
commitment to magnifying working class life.
There is poetry in the dirt and Thrasivoulou reveals
it:
‘Hopscotch the dog muck… / Avoid the stench / of rank
stale bins’ (‘#Terraced Street Games’)
‘A session-head, asleep, caresses a cold kebab caked
in grease.’ (‘Bin Day/Autumn/Terraced Streets’)
In the four-and-a-half-page poem ‘Identifying the
Missing’, he rants about an office environment and states, in anguish and in
pride, ‘truth is they ain’t been dragged up like me.’ ‘Affirmation’ is a
six-part poem about an attempted suicide that is a ‘ceremony / one for the
Mayan gods’. ‘Give ‘Em The Rope’ is an absolutely gripping account of the
impact of cuts to a helpline:
‘even if it only rang / never answered / …he’d talk
and sing away / bladdered from the boozer’
This is mostly a bleak book about an individual ‘let
loose in the grounds of purgatory’ (‘Our Man’s Pride ‘N’ That’), though the
poem ‘We are Derby’,
which Thrasivoulou has read to thousands of people at Derby County FC matches, is
a celebration of place. Derby County’s stadium is called Pride Park, which
could just as well serve as an alternative title for this collection – even in
the details of misery, you can identify the author’s love for his city.
The final poems reach further, commenting with
contempt on our political masters in London. ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four Was Not an
Instruction Manual’, ‘There’s No Onus on the One Percent That Own Us’ and
‘Suited and Booted Reptiles’ seem more current than ever, albeit it would be
easy for some to dismiss such poems as preaching to the converted. I would like
to have read more lines such as ‘A glamour pin-up, a sketched cartoon, / A
Tutankhamun Looney Tune’ (‘Wyhttbylth’), which would surely appeal even to
political opponents. There’s a revelry in imagery and rhythm here that reminded
me of the great Elvis McGonagall.
It’s fascinating to consider what Thrasivoulou does
next. Where do you go from reading your poetry to 30,000 people? Supporting U2?
I doubt it. This poet has other priorities. Again, from ‘Wyhttbylth’:
‘we’ve got to win / this f***ing class war / we’re
living in’
Neil Laurenson is a poet based
in Worcester in England. His debut book Exclamation Marx! was published
by Silhouette Press. He has performed at events such as Wenlock Poetry
Festival, Ledbury Poetry Festival and Cheltenham Poetry Festival. You can find
poems, blogs, reviews and videos at www.neillaurenson.com
